Tickled Apes Reveal the Rhythmic Roots of Laughter

A new study looks at laughter. It helps us understand how laughter started a long, long time ago. This research looks at different animals. It includes chimpanzees, gorillas, and other big apes. It also includes small human children. All these groups laugh when they play.

Scientists watch and listen to how these animals and children laugh. They sometimes tickle them gently to make them laugh. They found that the laughter sounds very similar. The sounds have a special pattern. They are very rhythmic. This means the sound repeats in a regular way, like a beat.

This shows that laughter is very old. It started with our common animal family. Laughter helps us understand how we learn to talk. The way we breathe for laughter might be a first step to how we breathe for speaking words. It is interesting to see how animals and humans share this special sound.